Raising resource productivity will require a refocusing of industrial effort, capital allocation and innovation. Given time, this may happen on its own, but system change is hard, and there is plenty of inertia which keeps the economy linear.

Chatham House produced an excellent report on resource futures last month, which provides a detailed and comprehensive look at how underlying environmental stress contributes to material insecurity. Its diagnosis, that declaring that "the spectre of resource insecurity has come back with a vengeance" is stark.